Week 9: Diversity & Inclusion IV

Introduction

This week we discussed the recent event on campus, the book burning lecture. I thoroughly enjoyed our class discussion this week. I felt as though everyone who spoke gave their own thoughts and opinions in a respectful way without making anyone else feel uncomfortable. I was very impressed with my fellow classmates and how they were mature and respectful enough to have such an open conversation about such a hard subject. For this week's blog, we were told to take it where we felt we lead, while also incorporating articles from class.

My Opinions

In last week's blog, I chose to take a more neutral approach to this topic to ensure I didn't offend any of my classmates, but this week I feel comfortable enough to share. Regarding Jennine Capo Crucet's speech, I feel as though her speech was very eye-opening and EXTREMELY empowering. She said things that needed to be said and addressed common issues that needed to be addressed. The only issue I had about her speech was the way she spoke. Her tone was very aggressive and extremely stern. She, in a way, did make me feel as though she was attacking white people simply just by the way she spoke even if her content was exactly what they needed to hear. Although I full-heartedly agree with almost every point she made, I also believe in order to have a conversation like that you must speak to the crowd, rather than at them. When people hear things that they don't want to hear, such as white privilege, they immediately stop listening. I don’t condone how she made people feel, but i do believe it’s important. Don't get me wrong, a human being should NEVER have to feel bad about the color of their skin and I would never want to put that on anyone, but in a way, maybe it takes that feeling for them to understand how POC feel every day. Instead of getting angry, the students should take a step back and realize how Jennine made them feel, for probably the first time ever, is the exact way people of color feel their whole life. This feeling should motivate them to do everything in their power to make sure NO ONE feels that way rather than fighting fire with... literal fire. Also just a heads up to those people who refuse to believe in it, white privilege is undeniably real. We are at the point in our society where the argument is no longer whether it exists or not, it what can we do to fix it. 

Article from Class

On Wednesday, we were given two sheets of paper to read. One of the papers was an article titled 11 ways white America avoids taking responsibility for its racism. This article really resided in me. Being an Asian American in the south who went to an all-white school, I have faced many people who claimed they weren't racist as a justification after making a terrible comment. When I told people how certain comments made me feel they would just tell me I was being sensitive and that I was wrong and they could never be racist. Even though their intentions were to make a silly joke, that does not mean they weren't at least being racist at that moment. People must be able to open take constructive criticism to better themselves and our society as a whole.

Random Side Note

Something I've always noticed is that in a discussion about race and POC versus whites, people always fail to include Asians in this conversation. This doesn't necessarily hurt my feelings, but it is always shocking and I guess a little upsetting. With Asians being the fastest-growing race population in the United States, you would think they would be included in these conversations more often, but to my dismay, they are always either a side note or not even mentioned at all. Although they may not face as many pressing issues as other minorities do, they do face many issues of their own and it is important to include them in the conversation as well. I'm putting this in here in hopes that maybe some of you will also consider Asians when discussing race. :)